Phone Records Ruling Upheld

September 16, 2003|By John Kennedy Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court on Monday upheld lower court rulings that allow government workers to determine what telephone records are private, even if calls are made in public places using taxpayer-funded equipment.

Three Florida newspapers had asked justices to review the decisions, which stem from the media's attempt to obtain cellular phone records for five staff members in the office of then-House Speaker Tom Feeney.

The records request was prompted by allegations that one staffer, Bridgette Gregory, was illegally working on Feeney's congressional campaign during time she was on the state payroll.

"This basically creates a license for government officials to edit public records, and that has never been state law," said David Bralow, attorney for the Orlando Sentinel, which sued Feeney along with The Tampa Tribune and The Palm Beach Post.

Feeney's attorney, Barry Richard, had argued that phone records concerning government business should always be public. But private calls can be exempt even if made in public places and on public equipment, Richard said.

At the time, Feeney's office responded to the records request by releasing lengthy phone logs in which all five employees blacked out phone numbers they considered private.

The cell phone accounts also were transferred to the Florida Republican Party, and the party refused to release records, with officials saying it is a private organization.

Neither Richard nor Feeney, now a first-term Republican U.S. representative from Oviedo, could be reached for comment on Monday's ruling.

The decision comes just days after the state Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that not all e-mails stored in government computers are public, but only those related to official business.

John Kennedy can be reached at jkennedy@orlandosentinel.com or 850-222-5564.